Twins sign Thome
1-year deal for $1.5M
over 2 years ago
JP_Frost
45 comments
0 recs |
Email
PrintComments
Seriously, what a steal. I can’t believe we owe Travis $40 million.
by joeee on Jan 26, 2010 6:34 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Yeah….there seems to be old sluggers out there almost every year (Frank Thomas, Jason Giambi, Jim Thome, heck you can toss Jack Cust in there). Travis was with David Ortiz the best hitter in the AL for a year, but hopefully the lesson learned is that the DH position is relative to other positions, full of deals.
Now their lineup is 8 all stars deep.
by Brick. on Jan 26, 2010 6:30 PM EST via mobile reply actions 3 recs
I don’t think a contract with 700K in incentives can be called “incentive-heavy.” I mean, if it were my contract, for writing a blog, perhaps 700K would be “heavy,” but not for a major league baseball player.
Even if those incentives are for nearly 50% of the guaranteed cash?
by JulioBernazard on Jan 26, 2010 8:42 PM EST up reply actions
This moves to Kubel to the OF and Delmon Young to the bench against RHP. I like it for the Twins, as long as they no longer see Young as an everyday guy. And when injuries happen, they’ll be well covered.
I don’t think it does, reading the Gardenhire quotes…it may end up that way, but right now he says that Thome is a bench guy who will get the occasional start.
I haven’t really delved into the Twins roster, but how is it possible that Jim Thome is not a starter for them?
Ronny G. is fielding like 6 All Stars, duh.
Welcome back, Sandy! ATALECG...
by USSChoo on Jan 26, 2010 11:54 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
I don’t know, but here are a couple of guesses…
a) They don’t like Kubel in the OF because he’s not good out there, and/or they think he’s better off health-wise at DH.
b) Concerns about Thome’s back…when I watched him later last year, he could barely move. He looked like he was running on a bed of nails. There may be something to this – either directly or clubs think he’ll just fall off the cliff one of these years, and they’re afraid of committing to him. Look what happened. The White Sox had no interest, and before he signed today, I saw Olney say that the Twins were interested, and maybe the only other option was the Rays. And they would bring him in for the spring and keep him only if they could move Burrell. And the contract for Thome was pretty cheap. It seems to me that the prevailing opinion is that he can’t play regularly anymore. Now of course, we should leave room for the general stupidity that exists with ballclubs…but I think the lack of interest is pretty telling.
I think it’s certainly possible that Thome shows he’s healthy and does well enough to earn a platoon-DH role. But it won’t surprise me if he’s hitting a buck-ninety in the middle of June and is primarily a pinch-hitter.
Good points.
Seems to me that the smart clubs generally are moving away from the DH as a full-time position. It’s one thing if you have a true Scary Monster™, as the Indians and Red Sox did circa 2006, but if he’s merely an above-average run creator, you’re better off holding that lineup slot for flexibility, e.g., the ability to semi-rest a solid hitter with an injury.
Having said that, once a club is preparing to go into a season with a clear lack of offense in general – and a lack of obvious need to slide hobbled players over into that DH lineup slot — then it makes all the sense in the world to sign a guy like Thome to a one-year deal. I guess I would say that the smart clubs are only looking for three kinds of DH: the scary kind, the one-year kind, and the lack-of kind.
Yes. I think this will be a platoon thing. While kubel was their main DH, he still played 61 games in the OF (compared to 83 at DH).
Kubel can play the OF but they really don’t want him to play there that much. I don’t know the ability Thome has at all to play 1B anymore, but Cuddyer played about 30 games there so that could be an option (with cuddyer playing in OF and young maybe sitting).
They would be wise to cut into the PT some of young, and both gomez and span if they can (because gomez only provides steals and span doesn’t have much pop). if this means less time with gomez and young in the field, they will be dangerous. His OPS+ is still around 120 and they have such a dangerous lineup with him. they can beat you from just about every position.
they will have 6 (7 if young develops more power and gets good PT) guys with 20+ HR potential and 5 guys with 30+ HR potential.
I don’t know if Milwaukee will appreciate Thome cutting in on Gomez’s playing time.
by The Grimace on Jan 29, 2010 7:19 AM EST up reply actions 3 recs
And what’s with the Denard Span hate? You want to cut into the playing time of a player that you acknowledge has an ops+ around 120 because he doesn’t have pop?
They would be wise to cut into the PT some of young, and both gomez and span if they can (because gomez only provides steals and span doesn’t have much pop).
That looks to me like you are saying they should limit his playing time, you are basically making him out to be the lesser of three evils between him, Gomez, and Young. Oh, and I don’t know if you could infer from my joke but Gomez isn’t a Twin anymore.
I did not know that gomez was not a twin. If he still was, he would be the first person to get his PT cut though.
I actually think that span is more valuable IMO than young. I actually like span but if they play thome, someone’s PT will have to be cut.
I wasn’t clear on span. he doesn’t have a ton of pop but he gets on base and gets the occasional steal. he is also a decent doubles hitter. I would take him over delmon (especially in a defensive sense too).
Welcome to the grand illusion.
"Nobody ever thinks, 'Hey, maybe I’m actually an idiot.'" - Jay
by woodsmeister on Jan 27, 2010 9:20 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
So does he continue making the rounds of the AL Central and sign with the Tigers for 2011?
I just wanted to believe.
in a few years his OBP should be low enough to get the Royals interested…
by Brick. on Jan 28, 2010 10:13 AM EST up reply actions 2 recs
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recent FanPosts
Featured Stories
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- Jamie Moyer legs out infield single, drives in two runs
- The Citi Field All-Star game has finally been made official for 2013
- Brett Lawrie receives four-game suspension, fined for ‘aggressive actions’ toward umpire
- PNC Park security guard loses finger in struggle with fan during Pirates game
- Create-a-Caption: Partying like it’s 1988
